No Nuggets trade appeared imminent Tuesday night — a source close to the team said everything seemed “status quo” — but coach George Karl admitted his team was distracted.

“We had an awful practice,” Karl said. “We were very distracted today. I have no idea why.”

It could be because of the ongoing trade talks involving Carmelo Anthony, which have dragged on for months. Anthony whisked past reporters after practice Tuesday, declining interview requests.

The Nuggets’ front office, meanwhile, continues to work the phones to calculate possible moves. The longer the Nuggets wait, the better New Jersey’s first-round pick next summer likely will become should they acquire it in a trade. But the longer the Nuggets wait, the more distractions. Whatever happens needs to be resolved by the Feb. 24 trade deadline.

Even opposing players, and Anthony’s friends, are getting exasperated.

“I stopped following it. It’s getting to the point where you’re just like, move on already or don’t,” Miami guard Dwyane Wade, a friend of Anthony’s, told reporters Tuesday in Miami. “I’m sure Melo is more tired of it than anybody.

“But it’s just to the point, as a sports fan, for everybody in Denver and everybody in New Jersey as well, and whatever other team comes into it, it’s been a long saga. It’s been a long soap opera. Hopefully it comes to an end and they can focus on basketball.”

Wade added that Anthony is weary of the whole process.

“He seems he’s getting to the point where he’s fed up with it, he’s tired of hearing about it, he just wants to focus on basketball,” Wade said.

Chauncey Billups, meanwhile, seems to be the victim in this drama. A few years ago, he worked his way to Denver, telling Detroit’s management that if they traded him, he wanted to go to Denver, his hometown. Now, he might be headed elsewhere via a trade because Anthony wants out. It’s very likely Billups will be included if the megadeal with New Jersey is completed. That trade would likely require Anthony to sign off on a contract extension, which he hasn’t said he would.

As for Tuesday’s practice, Billups wasn’t concerned.

“I’ve been on teams, and I’ve been on this team, where we’ve had some great practices and come out and don’t play well,” he said. “Or bad practice and come out and play great. You want to get better every day, and you want to have a good practice every day, but the reality of it is it just doesn’t happen like that.”

Meanwhile, New Jersey owner Mikhail Prokhorov is expected to meet today with the media. It’s the first time during the regular season that the Russian billionaire will hold a news conference. Prokhorov has been pursuing a trade for Anthony for several months.

Benjamin Hochman was a sports columnist for The Denver Post until August 2015 before leaving for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his hometown newspaper. Hochman previously worked for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for its Hurricane Katrina coverage. Hochman wrote the Katrina-themed book “Fourth and New Orleans,” published in 2007.

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